Centrals Tips - July 2021
Build up the soil in raised beds, get a potato patch ready and prune the pip and stone fruit trees and berries.
Rose pruning time, feed breeding birds, shop for specimen trees and make some free plants by dividing garden perennials.
Winter salads
Brighten up your winter salads with baby beet, rainbow chard, spinach and kale leaves. Don’t forget about edible flowers like calendula and violas. Yum!
Vegetable: Build up the soil in raised beds, get a potato patch ready and prune the pip and stone fruit trees and berries
General Garden: Rose pruning time, feed breeding birds, shop for specimen trees and make some free plants by dividing garden perennials
In the Edible Garden
Prepare a potato patch – dig in lots of compost and sheep pellets so the soil is ready for sprouted seed potatoes. Growing potatoes in heavy soil can help break it up and leave it more friable for growing summer crops
Renovate raised vegetable beds: get them ready for spring growing by adding fresh Garden Mix or digging through organic Compost. Time to fix any leaks or drippers in irrigation systems
Pruning time: sharpen secateurs and loppers to get the cleanest cuts when pruning and shaping deciduous fruit trees and berry bushes
Spray pip and stone fruit trees with copper and oil to provide eliminate fungal spores that may have over-wintered on them
Harvest a winter salad: baby leaves of kale, beetroot, spinach and rainbow chard make salads so much more colourful, add calendula petals for a splash of orange
Woody herbs can be planted now – rosemary, thyme and oregano will establish now and add a lavender plant to the vegetable bed to attract the bees in spring
The rest of the garden
Rose pruning can begin this month – for newbies, local garden centres often hold rose-pruning demonstrations – or there’s YouTube. Leave the hydrangeas for another month.
A bird seed pudding is easy to make: take bird seed mix, melted lard and a bit of honey, shape into a ball and place in a netting bag. Hang it high in a tree where the birds feel safe enough to get to it
Lift and divide favourite perennials now – free plants are often under your nose – this includes perennial plants such as hostas, delphiniums, penstemons and shasta daisies
Plant new season’s ornamental trees – there’s a variety of showy cherries, liquidambars and maples available now, including smaller growing varieties to suit smaller urban gardens – just check with your local garden centres. Stake them to two thirds of their height to keep the root area steady in spring winds
Pep up lawns that are a bit yellow with Garden Supreme, a general garden fertiliser
Project for July
Install Jakmat to create an extra parking area for the campervan or boat by converting a muddy lawn. Jakmat is a premium quality interlocking mat system made right here in New Zealand from recycled plastic. Fill it with decorative pebbles and you’ve got an attractive functional space for vehicle overflow.